New Delhi, Nov. 20 -- India is taking a major step toward widening public participation in highway financing, with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) set to launch its maiden public infrastructure investment trust, the Raajmarg Infra Investment Trust (RIIT).

The proposed public InvIT, announced by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), is expected to deepen the government's road-asset monetization pipeline and bring retail, pension and domestic institutional investors directly into the funding of national highways.

This will be NHAI's second InvIT after the National Highway Infra Trust was set up in 2020 as a private InvIT.

As part of the new initiative, NHAI has incorporated Raajmarg Infra Investment Manager...